The present invention relates to the field of snow grooming, and in particular, to a snow grooming apparatus and system for forming snow barriers and elements.
Skiing has been a popular winter pastime for many years. In recent years the costs of snow making and area upkeep have left ski areas looking for ways to attract additional revenue from their investment. Accordingly, ski areas have expanded to include cross-country ski trails, snow shoe and ice skating areas, and elaborate snowboard parks.
One development in this trend has been the proliferation of snow tubing parks at ski areas. These parks are attractive because they provide an attraction for non-skiers who may accompany their families to the ski area. Snow tubing parks are typically divided into lanes that run parallel to one another from the highest to the lowest elevation. Such an arrangement of lanes allows maximum use of the park, reduces the chance of collisions between tubers, and allows the ski slope operators to segregate snow tubers by age, ability or other considerations.
Snow tube lanes are generally separated by barriers that are of sufficient height to constrain the snow tubes. These barriers may be constructed in many ways. For example, in some tubing parks barriers are formed with bales of hay, which are placed along the sides of the lanes. This use of hay bales does not require a large initial investment, but is costly due to the need to continuously purchase hay bales and the need to hire additional personnel to see that the hay bales remain in place during operation. In other tubing parks the ground under the snow is formed into a barrier that is subsequently covered by snow. However this method requires a larger initial investment in construction and limits the area""s ability to groom the tubing lanes using existing grooming equipment.
The most popular method of forming barriers has been to use the snow on the ground to construct the barriers that form the lanes. This is achieved by plowing the snow on the slopes with a conventional snow vehicle to which a blade is mounted, in order to form snow banks similar to snow banks formed on the side of the road after a snowstorm. This method is preferred because it utilizes existing ski area grooming equipment, does not require a large initial investment in construction, eliminates the continuing cost of purchasing hay bales and maintaining their position, is friendly to the environment, and allows the ski area to groom the tubing lanes creating lanes of uniform size. This method, however, is not without its problems.
One significant problem with this method is insuring the safety of tubers who impact the barriers. When a barrier is created by a snowcat blade the resulting surface will typically include a number of ragged edges, which become sharp when softened by the sun and refrozen. Because there is no effective way of steering the snow tube, there is no real control over the descent down the snow tube lane. Accordingly, it is not uncommon for the head or face of a snow tuber to contact the barrier during descent. As a result of this danger, it is often necessary for staff to visually inspect each barrier and manually smooth sharp edges and/or large chunks of snow along the barriers. Further, in cases where there are too many edges and/or chunks to manually smooth, it is often necessary for the snow vehicle to flatten the barriers and reform them, causing additional labor to be expended.
There are a number of prior art methods for forming snow. However, none are adapted to solve the present problem. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,366 teaches a method for creating snow barriers in fields. In this patent, a row of snow is severed from the snow cover and elevated to provide a trench in the snow cover. The row is then deflected to one side of the trench and deposited on the undisturbed snow covering beside the trench. This produces a wind barrier on the snow-covered field, and a system that ridges snow in fields. However, the apparatus is not adapted to the topography of a snow-tubing park.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,356,645 discloses a variable wing plow blade and mounting structure for attaching the plow blade to a tractor, snow grooming vehicle and the like. Such that a blade distributes the load over a relatively large area. In addition, the height of the plow blade, and pitch and roll, tilt and wing blade adjustments, to offer greater freedom of movement of the blades. Although this plow effectively moves the snow, it does not solve the problem of icy, jagged snow barriers.
An apparatus that allows lanes of snow in a snow tube park to be groomed in such a manner as to prevent the formation of jagged edges is not known in the art.
The invention is a lane grooming apparatus and system that accepts a quantity of snow and forms the quantity of snow into a smooth sided barrier that is used to separate a snow tube area into lanes, or to form elements upon a ski slope.
In its most basic form, the apparatus of the present invention has an inlet to accept the snow, and at least one smoothing member attached to the rear of the inlet. The smoothing members are dimensioned to pass over the snow formed by the inlet and to smooth at least one side of the snow such that the resulting barrier has at least one substantially smooth side.
In some embodiments of the apparatus, two smoothing members are attached to, and extend from, the rear of the inlet. In its preferred form, however, the apparatus utilizes three smoothing members. In this embodiment, the inlet is substantially trapezoidal and includes a top, a first side and a second side. Each of the sides are tapered inward such that the front of the inlet is larger than the rear of the inlet. It is preferred that the three smoothing members be constructed of a substantially flexible material. These flexible smoothing members are preferably attached to the inlet and are held in contact with the snow barrier by a plurality of springs. The preferred apparatus also includes an attachment that permits the apparatus to be removably attached to a snow grooming blade.
In its most basic form, the system of the present invention includes the snow grooming apparatus and the apparatus is attached to a blade that is dimensioned for attachment to a snow grooming vehicle. In its preferred form, the grooming system includes a snow grooming apparatus that is removably attached to one side of a snow grooming blade. The preferred snow grooming blade includes a center blade with a curved bottom edge, a first side of the blade, disposed next to the apparatus, having a curved bottom, and a second side of the blade, disposed opposite from the first side of the blade, having a standard grooming edge. In the preferred system, the apparatus is attached to the blade via a first pair of steel box beams welded to the outside of one side of the inlet. The first pair of beams is inserted into a second pair of box beams, which have an inside dimension larger than the outside dimension of the box beams that are welded to the apparatus. The second pair of box beams is preferably welded to the plow blade. The first pair of beams is preferably secured within the second pair of beams via a pair of steel pins that are inserted through holes drilled at predetermined locations through both pairs of beams. These steel pins are preferably secured with clips or cotter pins. The apparatus of the preferred system also includes a steel plate that is dimensioned to fit in the space between the apparatus and the snow-grooming blade.
In operation, the apparatus is attached to the blade and the blade is attached to a grooming vehicle. The grooming vehicle then lowers the blade to the desired height and propels the blade and apparatus forward to form a lane. During the process of forming the lane, snow is received by the inlet of the apparatus. The inlet forms the snow into a barrier bounding the lane. The barrier then exits the inlet and is smoothed by the smoothing members such that the resulting barrier has at least one substantially smooth surface.
Therefore, it is an aspect of the present invention to provide an apparatus and system for forming and smoothing a snow barrier.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a snow grooming apparatus for forming snow barriers, which can be used with existing snow grooming technology.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a snow grooming apparatus that may be removably attached to common snow grooming blades.
It is a further aspect of the invention to provide a system for forming snow barriers that enhances the safety of users by producing snow barriers having at least one substantially smooth side.
It is a still further aspect of the invention to provide a system for forming snow barriers that includes a blade that is dimensioned to form a lane having a curved bottom.
These aspects of the invention are not exclusive and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art when read in conjunction with the following description, appended claims and accompanying drawings.